Compiled by Ginger Tabora
With the assistance of her grandmother's brother, Bishop Federico Escaler,
S.J

Introduction

The illustrious town of Apalit of the Province of Pampanga in the Philippines
prides itself of being the center of Philippine high society and government
officialdom outside the capital city of Manila in the mid-19th century
to the early years of the 20th century. The wealthy and prominent families
of the town such as the Arnedo, the Carlos, the Escaler, the Espiritu,
the Galang, the Gonzalez, the Santos, the Sioco, the Tanjutco and many
others left unforgettable memories and contributions to the economic development
of their communities and to the country in general. In Apalit alone, the
municipal government building, the central elementary school building,
the parish church of St. Peter, the beautiful municipal park and many
landmarks were built through the generosity of these illustrious families.
They strongly supported the Philippine cause for independence both from
Spain and from the United States of America.

From the same families, many served the municipal, provincial and national
government in the legislative, executive and judicial branches of government
service.

The Escaler Family in the 1760s

Antonio and Gregorio Tuason

During the British invasion of the Spanish Manila in 1762, Governor General
Simon de Anda moved the colonial capital to the town of Bacolor in Pampanga.

Antonio Tuason was a Sangley merchant loyal to the Spanish colonial authorities.
He placed his resources in the service of the Spanish defenders.

After the British invasion ended in 1764, Antonio Tuason was rewarded
a land grant and a noble title of "mayorazgo" by the Spanish
Crown. This elevated the Tuason family to the ranks of Spanish peerage.

Antonio Tuason returned to Manila to resume his commercial activities.
His brother Gregorio remained in Bacolor to pursue agriculture.

Gregorio Tuason married Maria Pamintuan and they had two daughters:

Escolastica Tuason y Pamintuan who at the age of six years old was
kidnapped by Moro pirates and she was not returned to her family until
the age of fourteen years.

Maria Juana Tuason y Pamintuan who grew up to a lovely lady married
Anastacio Hilario of Bacalor, Pampanga.

Escolastica Tuason y Rodriguez

Dona Escolastica Tuason inherited a hacienda in Bacolor, which yielded
2,000 piculs of sugar and 1,000 cavans of rice yearly. She married Don
Olegario Rodriguez, also from Bacolor.

Don Olegario Rodriguez (aka Incung Luga) and Dona Escolastica Tuason de
Rodriguez (aka Impung Cobang) had the following five children:

Dona Marta Rodriguez y Tuason married Don Hilarion Santos. They had two
children: Rafaela Santos y Rodriguez who married Vicente Fernandez and
Roman Santos y Rodriguez who married Juliana Andres.

After the death of Don Hilarion Santos, Dona Marta Rodriguez, viuda de
Santos married Don Domingo Carlos.

Roman Santos y Rodriguez was raised as a ward by his first cousin Dona
Florencia Sioco de Gonzalez in Barrio Sulipan, Apalit, Pampanga. Her elder
sister, Dona Sabina Sioco de Escaler, lent him the initial capital to
purchase his first bamboo "casco" (raft) with which he ferried
the dry goods he was buying and selling in various towns.

Don Roman Santos y Rodriguez founded Prudential Bank and a very successful
family of businessmen active to this day.

Dona Maria Rodriguez y Tuason was a spinster.

Olegario Rodriguez

Don Olegario Rodriguez was Capitan Natural in 1842 & 1853. His father,
Don Francisco Rodriguez was Capitan Natural in 1830. The Rodriguez family
migrated to Bacolor from Bataan around 1800. Also related to the Banson
family of Bataan.

After the death of Dona Escolastica Tuason de Rodriguez, Don Olegario
Rodriguez married Jacoba Bautista (died on January 31, 1874). They had
the following ten children:

Macario

Felix (Capitan Natural of Bacalor, Pampanga from 1891-1892)

Jose

Maxima

Maria

Francisco

Librada

3 children not known

Don Olegario Rodriguez died on June 3, 1874.

Prisca Ines Rodriguez y Tuason

Dona Prisca Ines Rodriguez y Tuason married Don Justo Escaler of Balanga,
Bataan. They had the following three children:

Manuel

Eulogia

Domingo (died at a young age, date not known)

Dona Prisca Ines Rodriguez de Escaler died on May 3, 1894, at the age
of 60. Her remains are in one wall of the Gospel transept of the Apalit
Church.

Eulogia Escaler y Rodriguez married Esteban Clemente

Manuel Escaler y Rodriguez

Don Manuel Escaler y Rodriguez went to Barrio Sulipan to manage his uncle
Don Josef Sioco's many parcels of land. There he married his first cousin
Dona Sabina Sioco y Rodriguez (daughter of Don Josef Sioco and Dona Matea
Rodriguez de Sioco). They had the following six children:

Jose

Don Manuel Escaler died in 1914

Dona Sabina Sioco de Escaler died on November 15, 1950.

Jose Escaler y Sioco

Don Jose Escaler y Sioco, attorney, industrialist, and business executive,
was born on January 19, 1885 in the old mansion house of the Escaler family
in the barrio of Sulipan, in Apalit, Pampanga. He was the oldest of six
children. His parents, Don Manuel Escaler and Dona Sabina Sioco de Escaler
belonged to wealthy families in the province. Jose received his early
education from private tutors, and later from the town school. In 1895,
he was sent to Manila and he enrolled in San Juan de Letran where he finished
the Segunda Ensenanza at the head of his class in 1897. The Filipino-American
war put a stop to his studies. Returning home, he found the family mansion
the quarters of revolutionists. After the establishment of peace, he continued
in the newly opened school of Liceo de Manila where he received his Bachelor's
degree with highest honors in April 1903. From the Escuela de Derecho,
he obtained his jurisprudence degree at the head of his class in April
1905. Then he sailed for the United States, continued his studies in Yale
University. He was unable to finish his graduate degree because of the
illness of his father, which called him back home. When news reached him
that his father had recovered, he was on his way via Europe. At Oxford,
he took graduate subjects in law and economics. After touring France,
Germany and Italy, he sailed for Manila arriving there in 1909. In the
same year, he passed the bar examination.

His educational attainment was given immediate recognition. He was elected
president of the prestigious Philippine Columbian Association in the year
of his arrival, and successively thereafter for several terms, 1909-1912.
He was also made president of the Club Filipino. Meanwhile, he apprenticed
himself in the law office of the noted American lawyer Wm. Kincaid in
which later he became a junior partner. His public career began with his
employment as lawyer in the Philippine Assembly from January 2, 1913 to
July 1, 1914 when he resigned only to accept the position of attorney
for the City of Manila. During this time, he established a law firm with
Sales as partner on Cabildo St., Intramuros.

On June 26, 1915, at the San Fernando Church, Jose Escaler married Aurea
Ocampo y Hizon (daughter of Dr. Basilio Ocampo, M.D. and Leoncia Hizon
y Singian, first cousin of Gen. Maximino Hizon, q.v., of San Fernando,
Pampanga). They had the following seven children:

Ernesto

Alicia

Elisa

Jose

Federico

Wivinia

Manuel

His rise was steady from that time on. On July 1, 1916, Jose Escaler
was made the first Assistant Director of Education. His illness, however,
did not enable him to stay long in the service, and he had to leave it
after four months. He was called again to the public service on January
15, 1917, this time as Undersecretary of Justice to Victorino Mapa (q.v.),
this position he held until December 15, 1919 when he resigned. On December
28, 1918, Jose Escaler was chosen acting president of the University of
the Philippines, a position that he filled until the opening of the following
academic year. This appointment came as a reward for efficient service
and in recognition of his intellectual attainment. Since 1911, he had
been serving as member of the board of regents of the institution, and
for two terms was a professorial lecturer in Comparative Jurisprudence
in the College of Law. At the same time, he was also actively engaged
in various civico-social organizations among which was the Philippine
Council of Hygiene, as member; the Philippine Orphanage Association, as
president; and the Sixth Philippine Agricultural Congress, as president.

His business ventures covered a wide field. He became at one time, vice-president
of the Philippine Oil Products, director of t he Germinal Cigar Factory,
Cooperativa Agricola and the Malayan Trading; director of the Manila Railroad
Co.; vice-president, president and president-manager of the Pampanga Sugar
Development Co. (PASUDECO), in which latter enterprise he invested heavily.
As an industrialist, Escaler was not an individualist. He believed that
the "competition which is to arise in the near future will be so
strong that the individual can not withstand it alone, unaided by the
government." In and outside the government service, he advocated
for a keener appreciation of country life, establishment of experiment
stations, research facilities and laboratories, and agricultural banks.
Industrial development must go hand in hand with agricultural progress
in this country, an idea that he advanced; at the same time, he stressed
that technical training must be developed.

With the heavy duties he assumed upon himself, he soon broke down in health.
In 1926, he sought to regain his battered constitution in America and
Europe; he stayed in sanatoriums, and in Paris, he nearly died. Not finding
any relief, he returned to Manila in January 1927. On February 17, 1927,
he died of a prolonged heart attack at the age of forty -two. On the date
of his burial, February 20, 1927, memorial services were held at the Ayuntamiento.
He was buried in Cementerio del Norte.

Bishop Federico Escaler was ordained to the priesthood on June 19, 1954
at the Fordham Chapel in Fordham, New York City. He was ordained bishop
on July 31, 1976 at the Manila Cathedral in Intramuros, Manila. He became
the Bishop Ordinary of Prelature of Kidapawan. He was once the Assistant
to Jesuit Provincial, Superior in La Ignaciana Retreat House, President
and Rector of the Ateneo de Davao in Davao City, Treasurer of Jesuit Province
in Manila, and became the President and Rector of Xavier University, Cagayan
de Oro City.

Matea Rodriguez y Tuason

Dona Matea Rodriguez y Tuason, was the second child of Don Olegario Rodriguez
and Dona Escolastic Tuason de Rodriguez.

Dona Matea Rodriguez y Tuason married Don Josef Sioco in 1859 (she was
his second wife). She was 24 years of age and he was 73 years old. They
had three children:

Francisca (died at a young age)

Sabina (born 1861)

Florencia

After the death of Don Josef Sioco, Dona Matea Rodriguez, viuda de Sioco,
married Don Joaquin Arnedo-Cruz y Tanjutco. Their marriage did not produce
any children. After Don Joaquin Arnedo-Cruz' death, she inherited all
his properties, which, many years later, she left to her two surviving
daughters from Don Josef Sioco: Dona Sabina Sioco de Escaler and Dona
Florencia Sioco de Gonzalez.

The remains of Dona Matea Rodriguez, viuda de Sioco, viuda de Arnedo-Cruz,
are in the Escaler mausoleum at the Cementerio del Norte.

The Sioco family had settled in the towns of Bocaue and Santa Maria in
Bulacan from Bataan. They were originally from Lingayen, Pangasinan. Family
legend has it that the Siocos are descended from Sho Ko, a Japanese pirate
who was the right hand man of
Limahong, the dreaded Chinese pirate who laid siege on Manila in the early
1600s. Limahong was repelled, and he retreated to Lingayen, Pangasinan
from where he left the Philippines. Some Limahong's men stayed behind
with their families in Lingayen.

Don Josef Sioco (born January 24, 1786), migrated to Barrio Sulipan,
Apalit, Pampanga in 1840 from Bocaue, Bulacan. He was a Chinese Meztizo
wealthy landowner and trader. Because of his severe frugality, the old
people in Apalit called him "Joseng Daga" because he stashed
everything away, like a rat. In his house, there was a small corner room
stacked with jars filled with gold coins from floor to ceiling.

Don Josef Sioco's first wife was the daughter of a neighbor in Barrio
Sulipan, Dona Juana Carlos, with whom he had a daughter: Maria Sioco y
Carlos.

He was in his early 70s when he paid court to Dona Marta Rodriguez y
Tuason (younger sister of Dona Matea) of Bacolor who was in her early
20s. She was not receptive of his courtship. Matea, an elder sister, less
attractive but more intelligent, presented herself to be his bride.

Don Josef Sioco died on December 26, 1864, at the age of 78. His remains
are in one wall of the Gospel transept of Bacolor Church, now under meters
of lahar.

Joaquin Arnedo-Cruz y Tanjutco

Don Joaquin Arnedo-Cruz y Tanjutco was the first cousin of Don Josef
Sioco. The Arnedo family migrated to Barrio Sulipan from Hagonoy, Bulacan.